Experimenting with citrus

I've been messing around in the kitchen some more, lately with all manner of citrus.

I was at Meijer Gardens last week, and ate what they called a Thai chicken salad. Kind of weird, actually, since it had mayonnaise, which is definitely not a staple in the Thai pantry. It got the wheels of inspiration moving though, and so I thought I'd go to the grocery store and try to make a Thai chicken salad for dinner.

I really enjoy going around the grocery store sometimes, seeing where the inspiration might take me. I bought bags of limes and lemons, a grapefruit, and since they were cheap, several orange-like fruits, where the name began with an 'm,' which escapes me now.

I was going to grill some chicken, but I needed some veggies to go in the salad. I was trying to think Thai as much as I could, so no lettuce. I bought a carrot, a daikon radish, and some broccoli, along with some cilantro and mint. Well, the mint is more Vietnamese than Thai, but I thought it would be a nice addition.

I hauled it all home and made a marinade with the juice of a lemon, a lime, a quarter of a grapefruit and one of the orangy things. I added some soy sauce, rice vinegar, a touch of fish sauce, and then a few spices: ground mustard, ginger, and white pepper. For the final Thai element, I added just a touch of red curry paste, which gave it a little heat, but also a more distinctly Thai flavor. It needed a little sweet to balance things out, so I added Splenda, since I'm avoiding sugar right now. Set the chicken to marinade, and moved on to the salad dressing.

I mixed up the juices again of the citrus. I think it was one a half limes, a lemon, a quarter of grapefruit, and two of the orangy things. To this I added a little soy sauce again, as well as ginger. No ground mustard, since it gives more bite than I wanted in the dressing, but I did add some white pepper. To all of this, I added a boatload of cilantro, about a tablespoon of mint (or so) as well as just a touch of green onion. I checked to see how it was working, and so I added some Splenda again, since the tartness of the citrus was a little overwhelming. At the end, I mixed in a little oil, so there'd be a nice feel to the salad.

I grated the carrot, cut the broccoli into small pieces, and then grated the stalk of the broccoli too. I julienned the daikon radish, and I was ready to go.

I grilled the chicken, basting as I went. I let it rest for a little bit, then cut the chicken and mixed it all together, and added cashews, for a little textural contrast. All in all, it was very tasty, and something I'll keep in the repertoire.

I gave some to Meg, and she said she could eat it everyday, so that made me happy.

Maybe I should tell her she could.